• In Amsterdam - Has a very "Viva Sea-Tac" by Robyn Hitchcock vibe to it and it has a nice addition of horns. The piano work lends a saloon feel to it that just digs into me. I'm a sucker for some good saloon/jazz piano.
• Dropped you - A nice good vibe and funky beat. You can't help but move to it. Plus every record needs a good song about breaking up
• Miss Ambiguity - A great melancholy number, almost a Radiohead vibe to it... but much better than Radiohead.
   

Bloodhag - Necrotic Bibliophilia
Since I have been playing them most every week on our

• Ray Bradbury - with the Simpsons "Martin" character soundbites played over the beginning and end it's a treat.
• Octavia E. Butler - A great song about the underrated author and one of the best rhythmically on the album.
• Neal Stephenson - A nice start from one of their live shows "you might like this song, if you know how to read" leads into a arrhythmia inducing song about one of my fave authors.
   

Solomon Burke - Don't Give Up On Me
Eric got me this for Christmas.  Thanks, man.

It's showing up on a lot of ten best lists for the year and that makes me happy because it's a really good record and this Burke fella seems like a nice big bear of a man.  It's a covers record, but it's not like one of those Johnny Cash albums where the songs chosen make the artist look like a clown or a performing monkey.  These are mostly safe choices...Dylan, Van Morrison.  Nothing too fancy and that's a good choice because the record wins through the butterscotch smoothness of Burke's voice and the simple groove of the musicians behind him.

The funny thing is that I listened to this like 6 times before reading the liner notes and I kept thinking, "Yeah, this is really keen, but I'd be happy if it was just him and that organ.  Man.  That is one sweet damn sound."  And it turns out that the organ was piloted by this Rudy Copeland guy who's Burke's church organist.  I know that doesn't automatically mean that they play and sing together often, but I'd bet a sawbuck that they do, because there's nothing tighter on this record than the interplay of that organ and Burke's voice.

Damn.  Sorry to go on about this organ, but it's just so...oh!  It's that great Hammond-y, soul standard sounding organ, but it's kept low in the mix and it's played so subtly, but it's kind of fuzzy compared to the crispness of the other instruments so it really stands out and really just bites you like a soul tick.  You know what'd be great?  Me, this organ, that voice, Eric, two Schlitzes, a pool table in a dark and otherwise quiet bar.  It's that kind of organ. Jukebox organ.  Eight ball organ.

There's not a ton of variation from soul standards here, but these records are getting rarer and rarer every year, so they should be celebrated heartily.  The sound's somewhere between Otis Redding soul and Little Milton blues. Record's a little too clean sometimes with ultra-crisp production that makes it sound like a Robbie Robertson record or something crazy like that, but it's forgivable.

There are a couple of times the record joyously breaks form, though.  Joe Henry's "Flesh and Blood"'s stripped almost to the bone and it comes out sounding like the spooky gospel of the Rolling Stones' "Just Want To See His Face" to my ear.  And I think I have something in my ear, so if you don't hear it, that's probably why.  Go stick something in your ear and try again.

"None Of Us Are Free," with the Blind Boys of Alabama...who I normally don't like much...isn't that lame of me?...I mean they're elderly blind men, and I want to trash talk them?...what the hell is wrong with me? Anyway, they totally won me over with the backup work they do on this track which is huge.  Movie-size. The sound is immense, with this thumpin' drum roll and anthematic songwriting that doesn't feel a bit hollow.

Man.  You know this guy's got 21 kids and used to be a mortician? Crazy.

You can preview the album in its entirety here. And if you're in Inglewood, you can hang with Bishop Burke at his church on the third Sunday of each month.  Pretty neat. (JM)
 

Kick In The Eye - Rock And Roll Needs A Kick In The Eye
This is an incredibly fun ep from greater metro Vancouver couple Marian and Donnie Lochrie.  I don't think I've smiled this much after hearing something, nor had the urge to get out of my chair and dance around like a dumbass, grinning Flintstone since the first time I heard Papas Fritas's "Hey Hey You Say"...and this has a real similar vibe.  In essence, the ep shares that track's Beach Boys-y "music as instrument of fun" intention.  (Note: my wife, who's not even reading this, is totally DOING that dumbass, grinning Flintstone dance next to me.  Shaking her arms above her head from side to side and jumping around.  It's viral, the fun this record produces.)

So it starts off with a cover of the Stones' "Hip Shake," which is a sort of cheeky song to wrangle.  You have to walk the walk to try to pull that off, and they, happily, do.  They turn the original's dark and spooky irony into a dance hall hit, bouncing the riffs like a super ball and tossing Marian's super-swell tough little girl voice into it.  A nice, fuzzy solo rounds out a great track.

Then it rolls into the big ol' beauty of "Hurricane"...which is this odd, yet totally credible original whose lyrics and rhythm echo a truck driving song.  But the bouncy "ooo ooo ooo...oooooo we eww eww eww" backup vocals and the all-flanged-up guitar that hangs above the track make the thing sound like the best beach-party-truck-driving-song I've ever heard.

(We're on track three, now, and this is the first time my wife's heard it, and she's still totally grooving.  "Who IS this?" she says.)

"Stop Messing My Heart Around" is another Beach Boys-y romper.  These two have some great harmonies going, with sufficient twang in their voices and their plucking to mix up the influences and keep things interesting.  Maybe it's what the Beach Boys would have sounded like if they grew up on a farm.

The cover of the Carter Family's "No Depression," though, is my favorite track.  It totally whips the original into a fruity milkshake, taking its brooding hopelessness about facing the Great Depression and turning it into this groovy yellow smiley face of musical optimism.  Donnie handles the vocals with this just-shy-of-dopey affected hick voice.  Then Marian chimes in with the backup...these sweet and cheerful affirmations like "uh-huh!" "that's right!" and "won't be mindin' me!"  I tell you, it's a hoot.  And a holler.  Really!

In short, if you like Bloodshot Records-esque alt-country or the Beach Boys or Papas Fritas or if you're pro-fun in general, you should check this record out.  It's only $10 Canadian, which is, like, $2 US, and it's worth every freaky Canadian penny.

An added bonus is their fun website where they share weekly musings on their favorite records, essays about things like Bob Dylan and the Beach Boys' Smile, and a fanclub whose members get the skinny on new tracks before they're publicly available.

Life would be a lot more beautiful if, instead of brooding sourpusses like the White Stripes, this duo were in command.  Go help make that happen, would ya? (JM)
 

Hanson Brothers - My Game
My God.

Well, they like the Ramones a lot.  There's that logo and the pretense that they're all brothers.  Then there's the very-sweet-in-a-punk-rock-way tribute called "Joey Had to Go" which is, oddly, one of the less Ramones-y sounding songs on the album.  The others are pretty Ramonse-y sounding, but I like the Ramones so I'm not going to split hairs and say it's derivative.  Hell, isn't everything derivative when you boil it down to its essence?  Some people are just more deceptive about veiling their influences in an attempt to sound original.

So this is pretty close sounding to post-End of the Century Ramones, but the riffs are a lot heavier.  Almost Judas Priest-y.  And Johnny Hanson-Wright's vocals aren't at all like Joey's wailing.  Seems like his voice has two modes.  One's this gutteral howling growl and the other's actually a sort of pleasant 50's fun band boy voice..like Joey Dee and the fucking Starliters or some shit.  It's nice to hear him downshift from one to the other.  Best place that happens is "Give Me Anything," a really catchy, lower-key rocker about what pills make him feel good.  The dude in the hockey mask (I think) also adds vocals...mostly saying "ONETWOTHREEFOUR" in this fucking hillarious voice that sounds like something from South Park.

And there's a cover.  I'm such a simple man.  A great cover really makes me happy.  A major steamroller here: Maxine Nightingale's "Get It Right Back."  Mainly because it fucking chugs like a tank and it's got that South Park guy singing backup ("That sunny day...," "If you get hurt...," "A love like ours...," "Give me your love...") and I'm litterally totally listening to this and snorting Thera Flu out my nose because it's still funny 700 times later.

Boy do I feel dumb liking this band for as long as I have and never figuring out that they're actually Nomeansno with some assignment changes and some masks.  I hope they stick with this project because I like it a lot better.  Far fewer angles and rambly paths.  This hits it right smack in the vein and you taste it right away.

I sure do wish there were samples online I could point you to, but there aren't.  You can buy it directly from the boys for totally cheap, though, and I would.  And if I didn't convince you, Ruthless named it their pick for album of the year.  (I thought they were going to pick Sigur Ros...)  They wrote a much longer review than I did. (JM)
 

Da'Mon - D Equals Emcee²
EPMD's Strictly Business is one of my favorite albums, mainly because of its simplicity.  Instead of junking it up with these busy arrangements and all that SQUEE WONKA WONKA scratchita scratch, the focus is on the voice as an instrument, which is what's neat about rap in the first place.

I'm guessing that's why I like this record so much.  The arrangements are bare bones, probably out of necessity since it's a handmade work.  There's a real basement feel to these tracks, most of which consist of simple and slick repeated beats.  Sometimes they get fancy, but most all of it's done with some kind of Casio beat box thing (I don't know exactly what he's used to make the music...you'd think I'd be able to figure it out, but, for someone who loves music so much, I actually know very little about how it's made), so, the effect is something that sounds like the best soundtrack to a very cool Nintendo game circa 1990.

Now...and here's the thing...the reason this album works so well is that this guy could rap over ANYTHING (the sound of a freight train, the theme from "CHiPs")  and still sound right the fuck on.  He's got a great voice and must have the lung capacity of a grizzly because, my God...I'm listening to this for like the sixth time today, and I'm currently on "One Night Stand" and in the past 3 minutes I haven't heard him take a breath once.  Pogo style, with this incredible sense of timing that bounces like a cute cheerleader with a sugar buzz.  Most all of the tracks depend on him hooking you with these jaw-dropping performances.  The same kind of "wow" you get when watching a really good kung-fu movie...a study in balance, precision and rhythm.

(And, again, think of that on top of this weird Nintendo soundtrack...)

It's not at all one note, though.  Like in "All My People," he tosses in this great singsongy "Keep it movin' baby keep it movin'".  In a couple places he whips out this hilarious Michael Jackson "Heeeee heeeeee."  Plus he's just a great fucking writer, sub-referencing like Dennis Miller and often coughing up these really clever stanzas like: "Disintegrating cliques/with heat from my molars/colder than the polar caps/save scraps for a better day/I sent so many styles UPS wants my resume."

One of my favorite moments on the album, though, is "If Tomorrow Comes," this earnest and heartfelt song about how much of a bitch it is to make it as an artist.  He admits to shedding tears and writing bad checks in his struggle to get these sounds heard, and that's not something you hear many hip hop artists talk about.  The chorus goes "I'm about to give my head a new hole./That's too bold/and I know it's making it too easy./Though they deceive me, I can never let them beat me" which is pretty heavy stuff compared to that "Booty dis and booty dat bitch ho" shit you normally hear.  And the absolutely cool thing is that if you don't listen to the lyrics, that song's every bit as head-noddin'-roof-beam-bending as the rest of the album.

The album's ten bucks.  Less than a 12-pack of Heineken, and not at all skunky.  I'd get this if I were you. (JM)
 

 Flipoff Pirates - Trillions of Voices - One Word
 I know most of my reviews are geared more towards the hard-edged arena, but sometimes you need to mellow out and feel the funk ya'll. Flipoff Pirates sent in a disk and some promo materials and asked John and I for a review, and after hearing it I hopped right in on it.

The Flipoff Pirates are a new style jazz funk band from the Ozarks. They have a nice sound, a mix of Steely Dan, Santana, and some funk infusion. One of those bands you can't tack down easily, and I'm sure that's just how they like it. If you're from the Midwest and into this sound you might even compare them to the Ghettobillies.

The guitar work is nice and smooth, just the way you want your jazz/funk to be. It has some nice Latin influences as well (as you can hear on songs like "Lost Light" and "All Day Long"). The bass is funky and thumping, after a while your ass just sorta moves on its own. The vocals mesh well with the sound and blend nicely with the instrumentation.

Other tracks I dug deep into:

• "Persistence" - Has a great ska vibe to it, we’re talking funk ska, like the islandish sound (without the brass). A nice track to jam to.
   
• "Copperhead/Walking Blues" - This solid bass heavy shake your ass funk. If this doesn't get you moving you have no funk... you're De-funked! Get It?! Anyway... if you love heavy funky bass this here's a track for you... think the bassline from "Bonin’ in the Boneyard" by Fishbone... think Primus without the noodling or quirkiness... think "I gotta listen to this one more time"
   
• "Deep Red" - a rockin good time... it starts out with a nice distorted guitar and is followed in with a nice solid drum bass foundation... this is like the stuff Rage against the Machine tried to write... only this is good. Give it a listen. 

Flipoff Pirates have a good sound and try out a few different styles on the album, and for the most part they work very very well. Since I’m not the Hippie-Dippy type I could have done without the 2 short spoken word tracks or the thirst "hidden" track with is a lot of silence followed by spoken word... you KNOW my feelings about that already.

This album is worth checking out especially if you like the funk/jazz sound. Their album can be purchased from their website. (ND)
 

Boredphucks - Banned in da Singapura  It says Boredpucks on the album I'm looking at, but I'm pretty sure it's actually Boredphucks.  I'm just going to keep referring to them as the Boredphucks because I like profanity and I hate it when bands change their name.  Like how I constantly refer to Dinosaur Jr. as Dinosaur because they'll pretty much always be Dinosaur to me and, come to think of it, how fucking petty was it for that other band that no one had ever heard of to sue this up-and-coming force of nature into adding a dumbass suffix to their name?  Dear members of the Dinosaur no one ever heard of, fuck you.

This record's great...a real Redd Kross vibe...like what the McDonald boys might've coughed up between Teen Babes and Neurotica if they'd fallen in love with hair metal instead of psych.  These kids are having a lot of fun, but, luckily, fun to them is rocking right the hell out.  The opener, "Boredphuckin'" is absolutely rollicking.  Yes, rollicking.  It rollicks, and it's one of my new favorite songs.

That's pretty much the only straightforward song on this album that just won't sit still.  "Kita Nak Seks" spends most of the time as a sweet little Cas-i-o-ke ballad about girls and then melts into a Dinosaur-y whirlpool of guitar sludge with heavy riffs and some guy doing the "Na...na na na na na" thing from, swear to God, "Crocodile Rock."  They do that slow then fast thing a lot ("Your Friends" goes from Caribbean steel drums into pop punk), and you'd think it'd get annoying by the third time, "Battle Over Endor," which starts out as a saccharine Goo Goo Dolls rip off, but ends up as a speedmetal tune and you're like, "Dude, you've done this," but then the guy starts doing one of those death metal wails, all "RAR RAR RAR RAR" like fucking Deadguy or something, and, maybe it's me, but I really didn't see that coming and I liked it a lot.

The really neat thing about kids in Asia is that they still think hair metal's boss and that Poison and Bon Jovi are real live bad boys, so they can embrace everything good about arena rock without irony.  That happens a lot here, whether it's the Billy Squire-y "Baby When You're Gone," the unfortunately chauvinistic "Rock With Ya," or the halfway-between-Enuff-Z'Nuff-and-Richard-Hell "Phuck Da School," which is also one of my new favorite songs and will be appearing on the soundtrack to my remake of Up the Academy, featuring a cast of teenagers I met on the Internet.

There's all KINDS of stuff on this record.  There's country and western, electronic wankery ala the Boredoms, and some punk-y stuff.  Think of it this way, if that new Sigur Ros record were an evil supervillian (If?  Were?), this'd be the only way to kill it.

You can buy it through Big-O, but you might need to email them to find out about international orders.  I'd say it's worth doing so. (JM)
 

This Was A Giant - Luke Holder
This here's a gem.  I'm a sucker for good singer/songwriter stuff.  Especially when it's not derivative.  Like the stuff Jeff Buckley did. Purely something internal...not something made to fit a genre-defined mold.

That's not to say there aren't influences here.  The closest recent thing I've heard is that 20 Miles record.  Because they both have a Delta rock fusion vibe going.  But whereas Judah Bauer sounds like he's cribbing from a textbook on how to have soul, you can tell this Holder guy's just living it, opening his heart and dumping it onto wax.

There's a lot of fun stuff on the record.  The bass is positively gooey, and the instrumentation on most tracks is a wonder.  "Have Paint Will Travel" sounds, at first, like typical college radio fare, but if you stay with it and then crank it up like I'm doing right now, it's got this great running T. Rex-y squonk and then this super-cool echoey Boston-esque space guitar thing going and, damn, this is a really gorgeous piece of music.  Hand-fucking made. Like the best cookies you'll ever eat.  Why would you pick Chips Ahoy over this?

"Things You Love" and, especially, "Safety" have this post-modern death country sound that I dig...like when Cowboy Junkies covered "The Post"...totally that sound, and that's a good sound, and it's served lovingly. "Condition" starts out with attention-grabbing vocal distortion, and then plays out into a fun little rocker, but "Murmurs of Appreciation"s probably my favorite... Zipping up the trickery for just a few minutes and stapling Holder's voice to a guitar and a violin duet that's just so beautifully maudlin with a plucky-in-every-sense-of-the-word bridge.  Mr. Holder, please tell this Bethany Mennemeyer person who's credited as the violin player in the liner notes that she totally made my night.

Some lyrical gems as well..."Now he's here/nursing his fear/of heights and fire"..."the glutton was neither consumed/nor destroyed/like a tornado taking the house/leaving the toys."  In "Presidio," Holder alludes to his admiration for Cormac McCarthy and Tom Waits, but the thing I like about him is that he likes them enough not to try to lamely imitate their words or their music and instead forges forward on his own.  This is a fiercely independent work, and I'd say you should keep an eye on this guy.

I honestly don't know what to put in this paragraph since it's normally the part where I'd say if you like "x you'd like him".  Why don't you go over to his page, listen to the samples, and come up with your own similes? (JM)
 

Ugly Casanova - Sharpen Your Teeth  I really resisted this record for a very long time because...ok...it's mostly Isaac Brock from Modest Mouse, who I, like a sucker, love dearly...like a prom date I know's going to break my heart like that bitch Pavement did after the junior prom...but I threw the stink eye on this project because I thought it signaled a return for Brock to his roots of suck.  I mean, I love Modest Mouse, but, come on, I'm not a moron.  Everything before Lonesome Crowded West is shit!

I should rephrase that.  I don't enjoy their earlier records very much because I find them inconsiderately noodly.  How's that?  They're almost like really bad improv comedy or something...ambitious, but limp and generally just fucking annoying.  But that's me.  You might like them.  Hell, "Talking Shit About A Pretty Sunset" on This Is A Long Drive... almost makes up for it all.

So anyway, I thought this record would be more of that stuff, so my fingers hovered skeptically over it when I saw it at the library, because I had nearly $3.00 in fines and didn't know if it would be worth it.  But I gave in, thinking, "What are you going to put on your best of 2002 list, bro?  Man!  You gotta find something!"

I'm ever so glad I caved, because this is a fucking fantastic album.  It's like if you threw Modest Mouse's Moon and Antarctica, Tom Waits' Bone Machine and Skip Spence's ashes into a rock tumbler and out popped something shiny.

First of all it's just catchy as fuck.  This kid's come a long way, and he's not going to pull some Jad Fair or Head of David type shit on you, like, "Ha ha ha ha...watch these fuckers buy this crap!  Wait!  Let's make it a double LP!"  No no.  See, he can goof off, like on "Diamonds on the Face of Evil."  Toss in a mandolin and hang it on march-like percussion and even sing "Sha sha sha sha" throughout most of the song, sounding a lot like Dale Gribble from King of the Hill, but it still works!  I swear!  You can tell it was crafted with love.  That wispy clarinet puts me in the mind of elves, and I fucking love it when it sounds like the backup vocals are being screamed from across the room, like the Pixies did on Surfer Rosa.  Remember that?  Did you like that?  You'll probably like this, then.

And then...THEN..."Parasites"?  Man.  Back when I first got into Napster, I downloaded an assload of these great Modest Mouse demos, one of which was, basically, this song rock-a-fied.  I was sad to never hear that song again...especially after I drunkenly deleted my shared directory and lost it.  "Third Planet" on Moon became a close approximation, substituting "And that's how...the world...began" for "And all...your thoughts...they rot."  But here!  Here!  It's back!  Pimped out, smoothed down, and now the most gorgeous song about bugs eating flesh ever.  (Sub Pop's got a sample of that one on their page).  Oh...hey...do any of you have that demo, by the way?  I'd really like it back.  Please mail me if you know what I'm talking about. (Many thanks to Derek Erdman, the fourth coolest person on the planet, for ponying up the tuneage.)

The dirty whomp of "Spilled Milk Factory," along with its "I'm going to do a duet with me and me singing like Russell from Fat Albert" ambition, lyrics like "Cuttin' cat faces in the pines,"  the Hitchcockian violin on "Hotcha Girls," the "Uh-oh, things are startin' to drag, better pull out the RAWK" of "Things I Don't Remember"...all of this makes me shiver rather than shudder, and I would like to bake Isaac Brock something to show my appreciation for putting his back into this shit.  I suggest you put this on your reserve list right now, but if you're in my town, you'd better be prepared to wait three weeks because I'm renewing it!  Take that sucka foo! (JM)
 

Rasa - Neoprehistoric
Throwing Rasa's Neoprehistoric into the machine I'm struck by an incredible voice.  Smooth like Bailey's.  A beautious double-barrel of beauty...the heart of Ani DiFranco and the soul of Tracy Chapman.  Totally groovy, and I'm listening to it, and it's like my brain's sinking into a warm bath with loads of Mr. Bubble, but just as it's about to doze off, the album throws a toaster into the water with this TOTALLY FREAKIN' GREAT cover of Wayne Thompson's "The Letter" (you know, that "Gimmee a ticket fo an aero-plane" song).  That track's pretty fancy, and it really cuts a rug, fuzzing up the intro and then rocking it from here to Cudahy.

This thing is really driven by Erin Best's voice which was, I guess, reading the bio, recognized as a golden one early on and developed with professional coaching since the age of 10.  Her sidekick, guitarist Sandy Morris, looks like the coolest art teacher you ever had in elementary school.  They don't say who the drummer on this record is, but he or she and Sandy should get blue ribbons, too, because they frame that gorgeous voice really nicely.  Like on  "Short Circuit," a song about coming of age, they throw out this great strum and tap that eerily evokes a ticking stopwatch.

The album's mostly straightforward rootsy pop rock, but there are plenty of hooks.  "Sumo," and "Moon" find Best belting out the folk singer's equivalent of scat with this high cool "shoo dee ba da bap shoo de ba da bap" that's pretty much to the ears what Russian gymnasts are to the eyes.

If you like Sade or Sheryl Crow or Tracy Chapman or Ani DiFranco or even if you don't like any of those because they're too manufactured sounding, then check Rasa out.  There are audio and video samples at their site and they're all worth a looksee. (JM)
 

Kaspar Hauser - One Tin Gong - I like this record a lot.  Imagine a nasal, a-tonal voice like that guy from They Might Be Giants and throw it into a band that hops from acoustic singer-songwriter stuff to abstract rock like...I don't know...Sebadoh?  That's kind of close to the record's main vibe.

I have to say that this thing is artfully artless, even though I realize that makes me sound kind of dumb.  But what I'm trying to convey is my respect for these guys and most lo-fi stuff in general. Many of the elements are deliberately rough or out of tune...especially that voice, Tom Comerford's, and I really can't stop focusing on it because it's totally in front of the music, defiant and interesting...like that sorta homely girl whose killer bod and sharp sense of humor made her sexy until she shot you down when you asked if she'd want to go get a milkshake sometime.

The parts are rough but when they come together, the product is extremely tight...sometimes rock-ey, sometimes winsome, but always professional...like colored bits of broken soda bottles glued together to make a mosaic of really pretty flowers, a bald eagle, or Johnny Cash.

As far as the tracks go, "Positively"'s flamenco strum is rhumba-rific and sets the "we'll be rocking out now" tone for the album early on.  "Immune"'s great rolling, bluesy strum'll have your neck twitching.  And the no-frills boy + guitar of "Blank Slate" is great to curl up and grow old with.

If you like slow Meat Puppets croakers like "Plateau," you'll like this a whole lot.  Fans of Palace, Songs: Ohia, or that Bright Eyes dipshit should give this a listen as well.  Way better than Dire Straits, too.  I mean, that fucker can't sing either and look how far they got! (Lots of links to samples and reviews that are written better than this one over at the band page). (JM)
 

Plastron - Super Sex Hero  - It's hard not to fixate on the guitar here.  It makes all kinds of neat noises!  I hear that that is done with pedals.  The record revs up with this thick, fuzzy, echoey guitar sound that's sorta Van Halen-y to me, but instead of breaking into "Mean Streets" it makes a left and sounds like it's going to jump right into Hava fucking Nagila or something.  I don't think I'm too off there because if you wade through the mud at the end of "Super Sex Hero" I'm pretty sure you can hear "Mammy's Little Baby Loves Shortenin Bread" at one point, and that's a nice move.

That guitar's joined by deep, throaty girlie vocals that sound like something out of an 80's new wave band...I'm totally listening to this and thinking she's going to start singing "I Eat Cannibal."  If  anyone ever re-makes Times Square, they should so grab this girl.

Their attitude is, for the most part, that Devo/Brainiac sort of goofball-ism, but I think the band is even more interesting when they stiffen up and play it straight.  "Spanish Spy" is a gorgeous piece of work that you could so totally sneak into Sonic Youth's "Goo" if you taped it for a friend just to see if he'd notice. And "Desert 2000" is a wonder.  It's got this very groovy "my-baby-does-the-hanky-panky" type riff that'll have you dancing like a white boy.  All the elements come together really nicely on that song...lots of crashing, noise and spookiness and, Jesus, it's so very Faith Healers and that makes me happy because I never hear bands doing that sort of thing anymore.  Imma write to them and ask if I can put that song on the site because everyone should hear it.

Fun and varied, but accomplished enough to slap the smile right off your damn fool face in several places. Checketh it out. (Band page here.  Samples here.) (JM)
 

Living Space - Fade Into Existence
John handed me a few CD’s the other day to give a listen to. One of these was Fade Into Existence by the Bay Area fusion outfit Living Space. This San Francisco quartet banded together in 1992 and found their sound by mixing different elements from several bands (like Weezer, The Smiths, Radiohead, and more). Fade Into Existence is their second album and is released on their own label Dark Matters Productions (currently they are the only band on the label, but their site does have samples, bios, tour info, etc.).

As with most bands with an eclectic group of influences their sound is hard to pin down. On some tracks you can hear the Morrissey influence in the vocals mixed with a Radiohead guitar riff (notably 19 Lines, Down in Denver, Happy Face) other songs have a very Weezer meets Paul Simon pop/island groove (like U.S., Running to a Train). A nice surprise was the final track, a sort of ambient instrumental with some echoed speech samples called Boo Moe, and a mid CD funk influenced instrumental called Gamez.

Overall the album has a good feel and makes great background music for working, cooking, or just lounging.  I really noticed a sonic brotherhood between Living Space and the now defunct Smoking Popes, they have catchy offbeat rhythms, the lyrics are decent, and the sound isn’t too bogged down with studio over production, it’s a nice clean sound that lets the uniqueness come through. This is worth checking out, especially if you’re looking for something light to cleanse your palate of all the too-heavy Rap/Rock corporate radio is trying to shove down your throats these days. (ND)
 

Millencolin – Home from Home)
This is a damn fine album from the Swedish band Millencolin. A tight, hard driving melodic punk album, with a bit of an edge. Think Descendants without the Emo whining.  I really got into these guys. The sound seemed to latch on to my brain and didn’t want to let go. This is one of those discs that you pop in and from the first few seconds you say “Yeah, I dig this!”

Highpoints of the album:

• "Fingers Crossed" – good energy, happy but not too happy, very hooky
• "Happiness for Dogs" – nice jangly intro, and the rest of the song melds nicely into a good solid punk, like ’94 Bad Religion
• "Greener Grass" – A Social D feel to it. Very nice.
• "Afghan" – a great feel to it… with the disjointed chords at the intro, excellent overall

One of the best features of Millencolin is the fact that they have the hooks and the lyrics. Not too kooky or cheesy. They can be melodic and powerful and sound catchy, without being Green Blink 41. This is punk that your Emo/pop-punk S.O. can enjoy without making you gag. 

Bonus: This CD comes with a game called Millencolin Battle on it.  It’s a fun little flash game that’s like Parappa the Rapper for the PSX, where you play along with the band members using your keyboard. It lets you play online or from the CD.

I can totally dig on this CD. It makes great background music and provides a nice soundtrack for driving, especially in traffic (god knows we have enough of it around here.) (ND)
 

Fivecrown - Niagra And All The Pretty Landmines
Fivecrown are a 3-man gig from San Diego. They’ve opened for quite a few big name bands and have had their music featured in extreme sports videos. I popped in their latest disc, Niagra, and All the Pretty Landmines and was struck by just how polished their sound was for being an indie with only one previous album. Niagra sounded as good if not better than anything by bands like Godsmack or Hoobastank, who have huge studios backing them, and therefore more studio editing and polishing at their disposal.

They list quite a few diverse influences to their sound, but I would describe them like this: Take the rich vocal sounds of Godsmack and add in the complex rhythms of System of a Down, provide some straight forward rock songwriting a la Staind and then mix in a good dose of the indefinable to give them their individuality.

The album opens up with a tasty groove – "Wonder Twins Powers Activate", which starts things off the way an album should, by grabbing you by the shoulders and saying “listen to me!”. Track 5, The Night, has a great rocking feel with a vocal style that is part Staind part Glen Danzig howl. The Giant Killer is a rocking good time that’s 10 times better than anything Pearl Jam has put out on their last 3 albums.

The album isn’t all rockers though, Slow is a pretty decent power ballad that’s hard to describe… it has some sound elements of Godsmack, Bush and Staind… with a little dash Alice in Chains for flavor.

If you’re looking for something meaty, hot and tasty, you could go buy yourself some Lil’ Smokies Hot-Links or this album… I suggest the album, as you won’t need the antacids afterwards. (ND)
 

Dani Linnetz - The Milk
Dani Linnetz's "The Milk," named by indiemusic.com as one of their top ten for 2001, is a great piece of work.  It's an easy thing to write about, and that's one reason I like it.  Stripped-down, melodic. A singer/songwriter who sports a gut-puncher of a voice...sort of Ani DiFranco-ish but far, far warmer and not at all grating.  That voice is backed by a light guitar strum, brushed drums, and a few bass plucks to help tie things together, but, rightly, these elements never distract from Linnetz's uncannily gifted singing.

What's more elusive, though, is to put into words why this incredibly basic record is so distinct.  You might think it's the fact that she recorded and produced it herself, therefore branding it as authentic and far less molested by dire hands than similar outings from artists on shit radio.  I don't think that's quite it, though, because even if I came into this record cold, I'd still find it completely engaging...beautiful and unexpected, like a purple flower growing out of the sidewalk.

Linnetz's songs are deeply personal, but at the same time, her personality doesn't get in the way.  She can sing a song about a messy breakup or feeling unattractive or embracing defiance and while specific memories may have occasioned their creation, the product is expressed in broad terms that just about any listener can latch on to...bypassing the singer and nailing the emotion itself.  I think it's that emotional quality that gets me, coupled with the fact that her voice conveys these emotions so perfectly, from when it dips into a steady monotone to when it soars like a spark-lit train flying off the tracks. (JM)
 

Amanda Thorpe - Mass
Amanda Thorpe's Mass is a fan-fucking-tastic record.  English-born Thorpe has been just under the radar for a few years, starting out with New York folk rock ensemble the Wirebirds in 1996.  Since then, she's amassed a high-powered supporting crew (including Knox Chandler from the Psychedelic Furs) and an uncanny sense of how to put a song together.

Her voice really reminds me of that Margo chick from the Cowboy Junkies and, actually, as the album starts off, you might think you've wandered into that band's Lay It Down album by mistake, but, as things get rolling, you notice the details...that muffled horn, the roll of a timpani drum, the sparse and meandering guitar bits...and you realize that this is a much bigger and greater effort.

This album's all about details.  The arrangements are meticulous, and each layered element within them is reigned in supremely...the brushed drums on "Eyes of an Angel," the plaintive lap-steel wailing and pleasantly jarring plucked strings on "By You," and the pleasant, hip-sway-a-rific organ on "Always" are just few of many great examples.

Thorpe's voice is also terrific, and standout track "Better Left" really shows what it can do.  That one's spare and spooky, driven by a nice reptilian guitar riff and rap-tap drumming reminiscent of a stopwatch.  Thorpe's voice floats over this, sweet and questioningly, just before the song flips like a pancake, tossing in a wave of organ and fuzz which the voice breaks through, surfing like one of the women in that Blue Crush movie.  I'm typing with one finger and using my other hand to shuffle through all my Wim Wenders soundtracks to see if this song was on one because, damn, it sounds like it should have been.

The album's paced really well, and strikes off in new directions at the precise right moments.  "Them There Eyes" shifts the gears away from the torchy, adding a goofy sax hook and this dirty whoomp-a-whoomp percussion that reminds me of "Big Black Mariah" offa Tom Waits' Rain Dogs.  "Splinters" heads the opposite way, invoking a chorus of backup singers over a campfire guitar strum that almost sounds like a b-side from the Stones' Exile album as sung by Marianne Faithful.

Fans of Tricky when he's quiet, Nick Cave's Let Love In album, Kristin Hersh or Holly Palmer'll love this record.  Hell...fans of music that doesn't suck period will love this record.  GO FUCKING BUY IT OR I'LL TP YOUR HOUSE.

(Learn more about Thorpe through the Cropduster Records site...there's a bio and some song samples over there.  You can also hear samples and buy the rekkid over at CD Baby.) (JM)
 

Hot Snakes - Suicide Invoice
Dude.  Screw the Hives.  Why listen to that when you can really grease your axle with this record?  It's more big rock revival type stuff, but its much smaller budget roughs up the sound and breaks some windows.  Like a road trip through the highs of every guitar driven rock band from the last 20 years, these songs hop from a Danzig-ish howl ("XOX") to a Jesus Lizard-y stomp ("Bye Nancy Boy," whose rat-a-tat tambourine sounds suspiciously like that band's "NUB" in places, but it's good enough that I'm not about to bitch) to CCR-via-the-Long-Ryders anthem rock ("Paid in Cigarettes").  Lead singer's voice sounds a lot like Steven Malkmus's when it was a lot more ragged, like on Pavement's "Two States," and it's rightly buried in the mix, just like Pavement used to do it before they got fancy.  And the way he belts these fuckers out is pretty riveting...like he's giving a sermon or something.

Rock as nailgun.  When there's strumming on the record, you can totally feel how hard the guys are beating their instruments.

I really wish I were in a band called Toast Points so that we could tour with these guys and then the marquee'd read "Hot Snakes With Toast Points" and people would think it was a restaurant and that was the special.  Actually, I think I'll start a band called White Hot Snake Vine Stripe Hives.  We'll rattle your teeth.

Go to the Hot Snakes page, which my eyes have a serious crush on. (JM)
 

Tullycraft - Beat Surf Fun
The opener, "Twee", is a jangly earwax melter, and is a good summary of what this band's all about...hilarity woven into Coachmen-esque indie-pop.  That song's a goofy declaration of their place in the music scene and it serves both as a nose-thumb at the dumbass stratification the press imposes and an air punching announcement of their arrival...a weird sort of answer to "Josie" from their Old Traditions, New Standards album which found them defensive about the fact that they weren't quite punk.

The album's crammed to bursting with jiggle, and cute...surf-y feelgood collages with keyboards, handclaps, and that girl going "Oh yeah!" in the chorus.  Sean Tollefson's wonderfully nasal, dork voice and sardonocity (I made that word up) work to make the album the musical equivalent of the drew website.

Favorite lyrics, from "Glitter & Twang," one of the album's tender tracks:  "There are...10 plagues of Egypt, 9 planets that circle the sun, 8 great ways to get the girl you want, 7 virtues minus the one, 6 ways to lose your wallet, 5 pillars of Islam, 4 Pavement songs that are kinda long, 3 laws of motion and there's just 2, me and you, and one way to solve this..."

Go read about them and hear "Twee" over at their site.  (JM)
 

Sleater Kinney - One Beat
One of my favorite things to behold is when a band hits that zone where their maturity has peaked and there's no longer an ounce of restraint or self-consciousness...like REM when Micheal Stipe stopped mumbling.

That's a dumb example, because this sounds nothing like REM, but there's that same sort of growth going on.  Corin Tucker's voice is even wilder than usual, completely uncaged (at times sounding like freakin' Lene Lovich), and sometimes it just hangs out there, like on the nearly a-capella opener of "Sympathy." It's such an interesting warble that it's really nice to hear it when it's not sandwiched between guitars.  You've got to catch it quick, though, because that track slides into a gorgeous, pelvis-grinder that's the straightest and gritiest rocker I think I've ever heard from them.

The rest of the time, Tucker's blazing through tracks that feature hooks and tricks heretofore unused by the the band.  "Step Aside" throws in horns and "woo hoo hoos" that make it sound like something written by Paul Weller during the last hours of the Jam.  The keyboard fuckery on "Funeral Song" is delightful...the kind of sound you'd get if you kicked ELO in the balls.  And the surprisingly acute lyrics of "Combat Rock," their strongest "message" song to date,  portraying the evils of blind patriotism, are a joy as well.

And "Oh!"?  Oh!  That single's rock-tastic, very 80's, and sounds like they're channeling the entire Stiff records catalog.  And, lucky you, you can hear it at their page. (JM)
 

T. Hallenbeck - Secret Society
T. Hallenbeck sent me a copy of his Secret Society album and I've been listening to it a ton.  It's just crammed with strings and Hallenbeck's plucking and rubbing every one of them...the guitars, the cello, mandolin, mandola...and it ends up playing out like some vicious cat's cradle.  I remember being a kid and some girl did the cat's cradle thing where I put my finger in it and she widened the loom, trapping me, and I freaked. I was like screaming and shit because I really thought I'd never escape and I'd have to be her slave or something.  And that memory's very fitting here, because I don't know if I'm ever going to stop listening to this disc.

I'm going to do the lazy critic thing here and tell you that his voice, to me, often sounds like Matthew Sweet when Sweet does that mellow thing, and the arrangements fall somewhere between Cat Stevens and acoustic Bevis Frond.  But the real treat? The lyrics.  The guy's a kook and he flirts with espousing his private sense of spirituality, but before it all gets too heavy, he starts tossing out lyrics like "And where she walks, frogs leap from puddles and pee on anybody who picks them up."  Dude!  I've so been there!  Frogs pee on me all the time.  Just try to talk about that with your friends, though.  Do they want to hear about it?  No way!  Thank you, Mr. T, for bringing this important subject into the realm of public discourse.

This is a gem.  Go listen to it.  And while at Hallenbeck's site, check out his cool homemade instruments. (JM)
 

Sciflyer - Sciflyer
I tell ya, I am pumped...and it must be an extreme circumstance for me to actually use the word "pumped"...about Alameda, CA's Sciflyer.  Their self-titled disc is just alive, creating this collage of cool sounds that serve as a mean right hook to the jaw of the traditionally dull noodly-guitar-band sound.  I hear all kinds of things on this record.  I hear a less bass-ridden Polvo with vocals aptly burried between slabs of wah wah and reverb.  I hear the guitar-player-falling-down-a-well dips I haven't heard since Dinosaur was good.  And, most importantly, I hear what Flying Saucer Attack SHOULD HAVE BEEN...a Zippo-lifting tribute to rock-and-roll rambling sans the grating dissonance...a thick psych-sprawl that's all about slathering long-ass guitar arrangements like your favorite cake frosting and adding Bob Mould-y vocals behind cymbal-heavy drum humming.  Also worth checking out is their Melt ep which features an extremely well-handled treatment of Husker Du's "Powerline."  Check these kids out!  (JM)
 

Knowa Lazarus - Let The Truth Be Known
Very adept and admirably self-produced, Knowa Lazarus's "Let The Truth Be Known" is, simply put, fly.  It's almost like two albums.  The first features Knowa's stripped down raps (which really remind me of Radio-era LL Cool J) laid over a unique series of alternately creepy and catchy keyboard progressions that almost sound like 80's synth...Tangerine Dream and Tubeway Army...and it's an interesting combination.

But the thing really starts to thump when he's joined by his friends the Q-York Senate.  This kid's surrounded by talent, and when these guys start juggling lyrics and beats, it's like watching them play catch with flaming ninja stars.  "Chitty Bang"'s a stomper, with the same goofy sensibility as Wu Tang's "Fast Shadow" -- lazy background nonsense and grunting behind alternating MCs punching their way out of the song.  And then there's the Latin tinged "Bailalo" and you know I'm all over that.

Great rap.  Zero posturing.  Check him out. (JM)
 

The Bella Fayes - The Truth In A Beautiful Lie
Let's hear it for the roll-up-your-sleeves-and-rock independents.  The Bella Fayes are living the life and building something very sweet from the ground up.  The Truth In A Beautiful Lie is a solid effort, and its opening head nodder "Feel Like I Wanna Feel" is sure to go on many mix tapes I send out in the near future because it's just rock genius...nice hooks and vocal layering, but under-produced enough to keep its edges and sound nothing like FM dreck.

The first half of the album maintains that momentum.  The vocals remind me a lot of Railroad Jerk and the arrangements often echo the Grifters, but something that sets these guys apart is their sensibility--a consideration of the audience and a good sense of "just enough."  Just enough feedback and just enough trickery to keep them distinct but within the boundaries of the infectiously listenable.

The second half of the album becomes a lot more subtle and might be mistaken, on a first listen, for filler.  But those openers are so damn good that you'll want to go back and unravel them.  And you'll find a lot there...the almost Bowie-esque scale of "Channeling"'s guitars..."Come," which, could easily be mistaken for, like, a Strokes b-side...the happy bop of "The Girl Most Likely To" where the band gives us an idea of what the Gin Blossoms might've sounded like had they not sucked.

I'm on my 6th listen, and I'm there, and I'm keeping this one in arm's reach, right next to The Bicycle Thief and The Strokes for when I need something recent that rocks.  Definitely worth watching.  Go see them here and hear them here. (JM)
 

Gray Field Recordings - As One Cast Down By Sadness
I'm perplexed by, but terribly appreciative of, the warm-ass reception Godspeed You Black Emperor has gotten from the public.  Their loom of strings and experimentation is soothing as all get out and proof that ambience doesn't have to be frustrating (Pan Sonic) or boring (Tortoise).

Hopefully, they'll open the door for other good experimental artists like The Gray Field Recordings.  Listening to them, I hear sounds that other bands flirted with but never gave themselves over to.  Like the Pain Teens, who would cut these great albums that were 50% sonic vocal fury and 50% intriguing sound collages and a lot of people I knew would just skip over the latter tracks and that is so so so wrong, analogous to kissing a woman and then going straight for her clitoris.

It's a stretch, but the Gray Field Recordings remind me of those Pain Teens collages if they were thrown into a steamer and purged of their deliberately vindictive intentions.  I think it's their interest in percussion and the power of a repeated riff (here those riffs are typically on a bowed guitar or a fiddle).  Vocals are treated as another instrument, not so much saying something as adding texture, and the effects are haunting...like that old Shriekback instrumental "Celocanth."  Be sure to give them a listen..."Meadow Larks" is a drop-dead fucking gorgeous introduction, then stream everything else they're offereing (JM)
 

Bad Religion - Process of Belief
We all have a certain cherished family member in our lives. The one that we had great times with or that could tell great stories. After many years though that family member stars to get old, repeat themselves a lot, and drool their strained peas all over their Old Country Buffet bib at dinner. You still love them, but more in a "I remember when" sort of way. 

The latest effort from Bad Religion is a lot like that family member. Do they still rock? Sure! Do they still have anger and contempt for the jaded world we live in? Of Course! Have we heard this all before? You bet! 

I've loved BR for a long time, but after 1994's Stranger Than Fiction, they started to go down hill. They released a few weaker and more radio friendly albums that didn't get much play.  Process of Belief is a lot closer to Stranger Than Fiction than the last few albums. We're not talking vintage Bad Religion, but it's a hell of a lot better than we've seen recently.

A few key points on the album:

• Sorrow - I was worried as this one started out, it was really Police-like in the opening riffs, then they switched gears and it started to grow on me. The structure and harmonies still sound a lot like something that Paul Simon would write if he grew some balls and learned how to put some ampage into his guitar.
• Supersonic - Comfortable Bad Religion, this track could have fallen off any of the post 94 albums and no one could tell you which one it was from. It's good, melodic yet sterile. Although the guitar riff is pretty sweet.
• Can't Stop It - For a moment I thought I stumbled into a NOFX album until the vocals started. Not bad, and definitely a refreshing change from the rest of the album.
• Broken - Broken is an ok song, a little pop-heavy for me. It plays a lot like Bad Religion meets Freiheit. The video has some excellent images. If you want to see it don't hold your breath watching MTV just pop over to the Bad Religion site.

My suggestion: If you want some soft-core melodic punk, pick this up. It's not bad, and it's something that's almost parent friendly throughout (should you still be concerned with that sort of thing). If you want classic Bad Religion, dust off your copy of No Control. (ND)